Found this oddball chewing the leaves on my azalea. He's really striking!!! Those four yellow spots are actually raised tufts (I'll put a side view photo on). He has two long antennae in front, and two long tufts in back, with two hairs protruding from them. He looks like a creature from a 50's B movie!! Anybody know what he's destined to be?
Here's a view showing the tufts a little better....
I have a good butterfly book, but it doesn't show the caterpillar stage of development.
Here is a head-on view of Mortimer, so you can really see his antennae in front, and his tail as well..... He's pretty neat looking! I wish the shot was clearer.
Thea, that looks like a White-Marked Tussock Moth cat:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/521
He is a cutie!
Oh, how I wish they were rare in these parts. Every spring these guys fall out of the oak trees by the thousands - no exaggeration. They eat everything. One year they almost ate my gerbera daisies to death. Then they make their cocoons on everything - the side of the house, shed, the well, the water spigots, the fence, the birdhouse, birdfeeder, etc. I have to kill them or I wouldn't have a garden left. I can still go around my house and find their empty cocoons. One year it was so bad you could hear them falling out of the trees and it sounded like rain. When I come in from gardening I make Dad do a caterpillar check because they just end up everywhere and I've had them on me before and not even known it. But if you like him - enjoy. In small quantities I have nothing against them, but when they rain down like a Biblical plague, you start to develop some resentment. : )
Wowie, Mellie, and this is the first one I've ever seen!!!!!!! I went out to look for him this morning and couldn't find him, and now I'm kinda glad!!!!! He is unique looking, really neat, but I don't think I want his whole extended family here! Thanks for the info.
In all fairness, I think we actually get about three different kinds here. I looked them up once - there's the regular tussock, the pale tussock, some other kind of tussock, etc. I was wondering because some of them did have slightly different coloring. I like butterfly cats because they eat one specific plant, but with these tussocks will eat anything and everything. It's funny because you always hear butterflies have a 1/100 chance of making it to adulthood, and you would think it would be similar for most cats. I don't know if the tussocks are poisonous or what, but I never do see the birds eating them. We certainly have enough cocoons around that it seems like most of them at least make it to the chrysalis stage. I must admit to spraying BT around the oaks to kill them, but seeing as how I raise butterflies now, I'm not sure what I'll do this spring. I think I've killed enough the last few years to keep the population down so I'm hoping I can control the ones I know will come this spring.
